二氧化氯概述.doc

Overview of Chlorine Dioxide (ClO2) The compound chlorine dioxide (ClO2), now commercially important, is not in fact a recent discovery. The gas was first produced by Humphrey Davy in 1811 when reacting hydrochloric acid with potassium chlorate. This yielded euchlorine, as it was then termed. Watt and Burgess, who invented alkaline pulp bleaching in 1834, mentioned euchlorine as a bleaching agent in their first patent. Chlorine dioxide then became well known as a bleach and later a disinfectant. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, when it was first used at a Spa in Ostend, Belgium, ClO2 has been known as a powerful disinfectant of water. The production of ClO2 from the chlorate is complicated however, and the gas is explosive, so that it could not be easily utilized practically until the production of sodium chlorite by Olin Corporation in 1940. Chlorine dioxide could now be released when necessary from the chlorite salt. In municipal water supplies this is usually done by adding chlorine to the chlorite solution, and in the laboratory by adding an acid to the chlorite solution. Alliger showed in 1978, , that ClO2 could be applied topically by the individual user. Although ClO2 is a strong oxidizing agent and a particularly fast disinfectant, there are no reports in the scientific literature of toxicity by skin contact or ingestion, or moreover of mutagenicity. It would seem that effective application of this compound as a topical medication for skin diseases,, as a disinfectant on food, as well as a cold sterilant on instruments and glassware, is long overdue. ClO2 in some respects is chemically similar to chlorine or hypochlorite, the familiar household bleach. However, ClO2 reactions with other organic molecules are relatively limited as compared to chlorine. When ClO2 is added to a system – whether a wound or a water supply – more of the biocide is available for disinfection and not consumed by other materials., Until 1963 hypochlorite